French presidential elections are round the corner and a far-Right journal has put out a piece about Brigitte Macron, French President Emmanuel Macron’s wife, having been born a man. The piece was discussed in a YouTube video and, thereafter, it went viral. The name Jean-Michel Trogneux --- purportedly Ms Macron’s birth name --- found many mentions and lent itself to many memes on social media. So much so that Ms Macron has since decided to initiate legal proceedings. While some have criticised her for thus giving undue importance to a fake story, the greater point is — what is so heinous about an elected leader’s partner or any other near relation being transgender?
Not charmant at all
Surely it cannot be the "T" word, because France is supposed to be one of the most progressive countries in the world when it comes to LGBTQ rights. In 2016, France passed legislation allowing transgender people to legally change their gender without undergoing sterilisation and became one amongst a handful of nations to do so. It cannot and should not be a lookist or ageist political ploy either, though it has happened before. In the United States, a woman Republican senator, Karin Housley, had remarked that Michelle Obama had the posture of a chimp when she met the Queen at Buckingham Palace. Hillary Clinton was fat-shamed. Closer home, BJP (woman) leader Sadhana Singh called Mayawati “worse than a eunuch". And soon after Macron was elected, the much admired "radical" French magazine Charlie Hebdo put him and the image of a pregnant missus on the cover with the caption: “He will do miracles.”
N'est-ce pas? Isn’t that so?
Now, if it was revealed of Mr Macaron that he was in fact born Emanuella, that would have been something. Not because of the change of gender, but on the grounds of suppressing the truth to his constituency. (And it is yet to be proven that a change of gender can alter one’s politics and political leanings.) But in this case, Ms Macron does not hold any public office. She is not First Lady, only first lady. Close to 3,00,000 people signed a petition protesting her elevation to First Lady, citing unwanted change in the constitution as well as added burden on the exchequer. For now Monsieur Macron’s list of rival candidates looks like this --- socialist mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo; president of the far-Right National Rally, Marine Le Pen; spokesperson for the far-Left Workers’ Struggle party, Nathalie Arthaud, and Valerie Pecresse, president of the Regional Council of Ile-de-France. Yes, all women, but what of it? Elections or no, world over the female body is the site where all battles must be enacted in word, deed and canard by men and women alike.